Roborock, the Chinese tech company that makes robot vacuums and other household cleaning items, is releasing its Roborock Saros Z70. It comes equipped with a foldable robotic arm known as the ”OmniGrip”.

Robot vacuums generally work by sucking up dirt and dust on the floor but they still need assistance with larger-but-still-small obstructions like socks and toys. The OmniGrip allows the Saros Z70 to navigate around disruptive objects and, if they weigh less than 300g, pick them up and move them out of the way so it can clean those spots.

Roborock flexes its OmniGrip

The Saros Z70‘s OmniGrip works on a five-point axis and can lift objects weighing up to 300g like socks, sandals, remote controllers, and toys. Hopefully, later models lift up to 1kg for extra versatility. The AI software works by marking objects it can lift while cleaning the floor. The Saros Z70 circles back to pick them up before it does a second cleaning run.

Could this tech one day lead to vacuum robots that can fetch a beer on gameday and take plates back to the sink? No one knows for now, but the lazy among us can only dream.

The OmniGrip uses precision sensors, a camera, and LED light to scan an object, determine its position, and guess whether the item is too heavy to lift. However, we doubt how reliably weight can be determined without some kind of built-in scale.

Users will activate the OmniGrip through the Roborock app, where users can also determine what kinds of objects the Saros Z70 can interact with and where they should be placed. Roborock plans to make the Saros Z70 robot vacuum available for purchase sometime this year. We can’t wait to see what this tech looks like in action… after multiple iterations and models have launched to market.